In this short interview, we discover the five favourite smells of Ahmed Tkaya, Project Manager at Iberchem Tunisia.

Lavender: This is one of my favourite plants. It has a very pleasant and relaxing smell, as well as a beautiful colour. It also reminds me of the perfume my father wears every day.

Mesk Elil: This flower perfumed my whole childhood. It grows in gardens and only opens at night, so its smell is released late at night and early in the morning. I really like its sweet and powdery scent that is at the crossroads of jasmine and linden.

Neroli: The orange blossom could easily be the symbol of Tunisia because we have a lot of orange trees in this country. Each year, as a Tunisian tradition, bottles of beautifully scented orange blossom water are prepared and used for all sorts of different purposes, including traditional Tunisian pastries. As it happens, one of my favourite perfumes is actually Tom Ford’s Neroli Portofino.

Edelweiss: This is a beautiful white flower that grows in the Alps at an altitude of 2,000 to 3,000 metres. It has the reputation of being rare and inaccessible. I first discovered it while hiking the Rothorn Mountain in Switzerland. I was drawn to its scent, which gives off soft and sweet notes, and it has remained in my memory ever since.

Sandalwood: It’s mystical, but at the same time it has a sensual, warm, woody scent. It blends well with sweet, vanilla or balsamic notes and leaves a voluptuous scent in its wake. It has been worked elegantly in the perfume Samsara by Guerlain, where it is combined with jasmine and ylang-ylang.